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Regina Zuniga
Professor Batty
English 114 A
14 December 2014
Stripping You from Who You Are
Many people have gone through experiences that may have been unforgettable, the
Holocaust being one of these events that impacted the lives of many families in a negative way.
This tragic experience occurred 1933 through 1945 causing the deaths of many people. With this
event came many forms of propaganda that had a negative connotation towards the Jewish
people. It would depict them in an inhumane manner-causing there to be many stereotypes. The
Germans were extremely racist towards the Jews that even the way that they believed Jewish
people to physically appear was very incorrect due to images placed by the Nazis. In the
reading Black Men and Public Spaces by Brent Staples, he gives personal examples to get his
audience to see that racism still occurs in the world even though it is said that we are all created
equal. Coming from a family that you do not choose to be from, but have grown to be part of
can be difficult due to racism, but to embrace it and not have to hide the beauty of who you are is
something great; sadly life is not like that. People constantly judge others causing one to have to
accommodate those who fear you and see you as different. What the cartoon represents is
dehumanization, the stereotypes and the racism of which the Jewish community had to face
during these times.
Hitler was one of those who believed that having a pure race or a superior race would
make them stronger. He blamed the fact that German Aryans and non-Aryans marrying and
mixing was the cause of their loss in the First World War. Hitler then began to take action to

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eliminate German Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies,
homosexuals, and Jews. He would put them in concentration camps where they would be
experimented on, tortured, not fed, and killed in gas chambers. He caused a genocide, killing
millions of Jewish people. Very few survived these camps. The beliefs that German Aryans had
towards the people that were not pure Aryan or Aryans were horrible. These people believed that
they were better than those who were not pure and all this was brought through the usage of
faulty images and propaganda.
The Germans were shown images that represented Jewish people, but had absolutely no
real features of them. For example, in a political cartoon the Nazis show an Octopus hugging the
earth. This political cartoon represents the Jewish people attempting to take over the world. The
Germans representing an inhumane appearance of the Jewish people created this. It provides
faulty evidence of them because not only do they include tentacles on their body, but also the
face included to the body of the octopus is not appeared to look human. The colors used are
white and blue. The blue represents a sad mood, but it also gives you an upsetting feel. The
image shows disgust and anger. The expression that it has immediately grabs your attention
because it is so different from what a human physic appears to be. The cartoon gives a very
negative perspective towards how and who the Jewish people were. In the image the octopus is
releasing a dark liquid, which represents the Jews suffocating the earth this connects to what an
octopus does because when an octopus feels threatened it releases the dark liquid to scare their
enemies away. The Nazis created this to give off a negative connotation to those who would see
this image because of how it is hugging the earth with its tentacles giving a sense that the Jewish
had power towards everyone, and that is why the Germans must extinguish them. The image also
includes a star, which is the symbol of the Jewish people. Lastly, the colors used to represent the

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earth and the star dont stand out as much as the blue used in the human octopus due to the fact
that the Germans are trying to get the people to pay attention in the characteristics of the octopus
shown in the cartoon. Josef Plank published this cartoon in Germany in 1938. The underlying
message of this political cartoon is to represent the perspective of what others believed the Jews
to be. It was created as a stereotype or as a racist image to depict them as less and as people who
are just not worthy. The racist actions that Jewish people went through connect to what Brent
Staples has to go through because he is an African American man.
In the reading Black Men and Public Spaces by Brent Staples, he explains in the
beginning of his story how he and a white woman were both walking on the streets of Chicago at
night, when suddenly she feels very frightened and begins to pick up her pace, she disappears,
becoming his first victim. He uses experiences to show his audience how racism and
stereotypes still exist in our world. This was written in the year 1986, and although it was written
a while ago, these stereotypes still continue to occur in the year 2014. Staples believes that
racism towards African Americans causes them to have to adjust and accommodate those who
fear them because of all the misjudgment that has been created of them due to their physical
appearance and history. For example Staples says, I learned to smother the rage I felt so often
being taken by a criminal (186). The quote helps show us how he wants to get his audience to
feel the mistreatment and how he has had to put all the misjudgment to the side. He must
accommodate those who fear him by moving with care, or simply by having to whistle classical
music so that others can see that he is not a danger, but yet that he is intelligent and educated.
Their appearance brings groups that are not African American terror. For example, he states in
his reading, I was on assignment for a local paper and killing time before an interview. I entered
a jewelry store on the citys affluent Near North Side. The proprietor excused herself and

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returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining silent to my questions, her eyes
bulging nearly out of her head(185). This helps prove the racism that people have towards
colored males. They are judged on a daily basis due to their appearance. Therefore, he uses his
experiences as a form to get others to understand that those who are not of color still fear those
who are. Like the image that falsely represents the Jewish people, the characteristics and history
that represented African Americans in the past still follow them till this day.
Going through such horrible experiences because certain people in society are not
believed to be ideal or one is seen as a threat due to the physical appearance that they may
resemble causes anyone being criticized to have rage. It brings one to a point where this
imperfection of a person is so engraved into the persons head that they may believe it
themselves. The Jewish people and as well as other races have gone through such injustice and
some still continue to be stereotyped due to the color of their skin, but how much more of this
does one have to put up with? The Jewish people went through genocide because they were not
seen worthy enough by Hitler. So he decided to kill them off. He helped create incorrect
perceptions of these people by dehumanizing them not only in pictures, but also in the way in
which he forced them to live. Connecting with all the stereotypes the reading by Staples also
helps show how till this day African American men go through stereotypes causing them to have
to accommodate to society so that they will not be feared. It is not okay for society to think so
poorly of others we are all humans and we deserve to carry ourselves as we please and not as
others want or expect us to do so. Making someone else feel worthless and as if they do not
belong in this world is not just to do. Everyone should be treated equally and nor should anyone
be dehumanized due to others believing that they are the superior ones, when clearly they are
not because there is no superior race in this world. We are all special in our own way, making us

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unique but equal.

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Seppla

By: Joseph Plank

(1935-1945)

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Work Cited Page
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Plank, Josef. "Churchill and the Great Republic: Seppala, Jews as an Octopus Encircling the Globe."

Library of Congress. 1935-1943. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/interactive/_html/wc0213.html

Staples, Brent. "Black Men and Public Spaces." 75 Thematic Readings: An Anthology.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. N. pag. Print.